Prabhupada said, “Because it is all coming from Krishna and is all perfect, therefore everything is perfect within it. We must accept everything. We must accept it without any… as being without any fault.” – Initiation lecture, 31 August 1976, Delhi

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“Because God is perfect, because Krishna is perfect, therefore His words and His ideas are also perfect. So these sastras are the words of God. So they are also perfect. So the sruti-sastra-nindanam means to think that there may be something wrong in the scripture or to take one verse out of Bhagavad-gita and reject another verse. Because it is all coming from Krishna and is all perfect, therefore everything is perfect within it. We must accept everything. We must accept it without any… as being without any fault. So sruti-sastra-nindanam. We should not think that it has any imperfection, that ‘This may be wrong.'”

Prabhupada said, “…The followers of the Vedas have a different method of acquiring knowledge. They accept the statements of the Vedic literatures as authority in toto…” – Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.3.11, purport

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“The gross materialists do not believe in the existence of God or the demigods. Nor do they believe that different planets are dominated by different demigods. They are creating a great commotion about reaching the closest celestial body, Candraloka, or the moon, but even after much mechanical research they have only very scanty information of this moon, and in spite of much false advertisement for selling land on the moon, the puffed-up scientists or gross materialists cannot live there, and what to speak of reaching the other planets, which they are unable even to count. However, the followers of the Vedas have a different method of acquiring knowledge. They accept the statements of the Vedic literatures as authority in toto, as we have already discussed in Canto One, and therefore they have full and reasonable knowledge of God and demigods and of their different residential planets situated within the compass of the material world and beyond the limit of the material sky.”

Prabhupada said, “There is nothing to be added and nothing to be subtracted, because the truth is the truth. One has to accept, after all, some authority.” – Srimad-Bhagavatam 2.2.32, purport

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“That is the way of knowing the knowledge contained in the Vedas. It is not a thing to be understood by one’s erudite scholarship or by the fashionable interpretations of mundane scholars. There is nothing to be added and nothing to be subtracted, because the truth is the truth. One has to accept, after all, some authority. The modern scientists are also authorities for the common man for some scientific truths. The common man follows the version of the scientist. This means that the common man follows the authority. The Vedic knowledge is also received in that way. The common man cannot argue about what is beyond the sky or beyond the universe; he must accept the versions of the Vedas as they are understood by the authorized disciplic succession.”

Prabhupada said, “The government issuing license. They have got supervision. They send sometimes, what is called, inspectors? Education. Say, for education. There is educational inspector, school inspector. They go see that the students are properly being educated in that school. Similarly, government should have expert men in the government to see that the Hindus are acting like Hindu, Muslims are acting like Muslim, and Christians are acting like Christian. The government should not be callous about religion. They may be neutral that whatever religion you profess, government has nothing to do. You do nicely. But it is the government’s duty to see that you are doing nicely, you are not bluffing. That is government’s duty.” – Room conversation with Indian Ambassador, 5 September 1973, Stockholm

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Ambassador: No, we have a difficulty, Your Eminence. We have got a problem in India because we have got this multi-religious society. So we have to be careful. But individuals can…

Prabhupada: No…

Ambassador: Because we have got to be… We should not be misunderstood. As a government, we should not take too strong a policy about any particular religion, even though it is the religion of the majority of the people.

Prabhupada: No, no, no. It is the duty of the government… Secular state means neutral to any kind of religion. But it is the duty of government to see that people are religious. Not that “Because government is secular, let the people go to hell.”

Ambassador: No, that’s true.

Prabhupada: Yes. If you are Muslim, and, it is my duty as government to see that you are actually acting as a Muslim. If you are a Hindu, it is the government’s duty to see that you are acting as a Hindu. If you are a Christian, it is the government’s duty. You cannot give up religion. Dharmena hinah pasubhih samanah. If people become irreligious in the name of secularism, then they are simply animals. So it is the government’s duty to see that the citizens are not becoming animals. He may profess a type of religion. That doesn’t matter. But he must be religious. That is secular state. Not that secular state means government is callous, “Let the people become cats and dogs, without religion. Government doesn’t care.” That is not good government. What do you think?

Ambassador: I think, Your Eminence, there’s a lot in what you say, but, you know, politics is the art of the possible.

Prabhupada: No. No, politics means to see that people are advanced, citizens are advanced, not that they are degraded.

Ambassador: Your Eminence, I agree, but I think the duty of the government primarily is to provide conditions in which gifted people, spiritual people like you, leaders like you, can function. More than that, if the government does, it might probably even corrupt the religious… I don’t know. Like an umpire in a game, you know, or something… Provide the conditions, provide the conditions for free speech. Not like Moscow, you know, where it is…

Prabhupada: No. That is… Just like you have got the Commerce Department. Government has got. What is the duty of the Commerce Department? The government must see that the trade enterprise, common share, or industrial enterprise, they are doing nicely, properly. The government issuing license. They have got supervision. They send sometimes, what is called, inspectors? Education. Say, for education. There is educational inspector, school inspector. They go see that the students are properly being educated in that school. Similarly, government should have expert men in the government to see that the Hindus are acting like Hindu, Muslims are acting like Muslim, and Christians are acting like Christian. The government should not be callous about religion. They may be neutral that whatever religion you profess, government has nothing to do. You do nicely. But it is the government’s duty to see that you are doing nicely, you are not bluffing. That is government’s duty.

Prabhupada said, “Persons who strictly follow the orders of the spiritual master are useful in executing the will of the Supreme, whereas persons who deviate from the strict order of the spiritual master are useless.” – Caitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 12.10, purport

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Verse:

“The order of the spiritual master is the active principle in spiritual life. Anyone who disobeys the order of the spiritual master immediately becomes useless.”

Purport:

“Here is the opinion of Srila Krishnadasa Kaviraja Gosvami. Persons who strictly follow the orders of the spiritual master are useful in executing the will of the Supreme, whereas persons who deviate from the strict order of the spiritual master are useless.”

“Guru must come from the parampara system by disciplic succession. Five thousand years or five millions of years, what was spoken by the supreme God or guru, the present guru also will say the same thing. That is guru. That is bona fide guru. Otherwise, he’s not guru. Simple definition. Guru cannot change any word of the predecessor.”

Prabhupada said, “Woman requires protection. According to Vedic culture, woman has no independence, because they cannot keep their independence. It is not possible. A sixteen-year-old boy can go safely all over the world, but a sixteen-year girl cannot. That is not possible. By nature, they are weak. So they require protection. And until she reaches youthhood, she is protected by the father. As soon as she reaches youthhood, she is given to a young man, her husband, to give protection. And in old age, she is protected by the elderly sons. This is the Vedic culture. They have three phases of life: childhood, youthhood, and old age. So… Because they are weak. In the Western countries, the women are given freedom like man, but that is unnatural. Unnatural. Therefore these poor souls are being exploited by the other section. It is a great deficiency of the Western sociology. But the Vedic culture is different from this. Woman is not given independence.” – Lecture on SB 1.15.20, 30 November 1973, Los Angeles